Staceman FPV

The sub 250g drone is flying again. I am having a strange issue that after flying, unplugging the battery, getting a new battery plugged in, sometimes the camera isn't working. The VTx is fine, and the OSD is fine, but nothing from the camera. The lights on the VTx don't indicate anything being wrong with the camera. Usually if the camera has an issue or the MIPI cable has an issue there will be an indication with the lights. I suppose it could be a firmware issue, but not sure at this moment. If I wait a bit, and then plug in, it'll be fine. I do have that larger capacitor installed so it could be holding enough power to keep the camera from properly power cycling, and that might explain why it works after waiting a bit. More testing is needed to better understand it.

Finished up some LED projects for my son today. He now has controllable LEDs under his bed and desk. He did the coding of the arduino controllers, and the Home Assistant integration. I just hlped him with some basic soldering that was needed, and some of the wiring. He has been coaxing me into doing the same for the outside of the house. That will be a bit more of an endeavor, but would be very cool.

In other news, I managed to get my drone back to working. Going to test it tomorrow morning. Hopefully it goes well.

I got some parts in for a project for the house. If you follow my Instagram, you would have seen a picture of a few of the pieces. We have a few more pieces that are still needed, and those should arrive today. That will be enough to get a test to see if it works or not. If it does, I'll need to get a couple more things to make it a permanent installation.

So what am I building? I have a garage door opener that can be connected to the cloud, which is great, but it doesn't work with Home Assistant, so it isn't that great. There were some hacks to make it work, but those keep breaking because MyQ feels the need to keep us from integrating with them, and they don't seem to care to create a proper Home Assistant integration.

The other problem with it is this: If you close the door using the app, it beeps incessantly while the door closes. It is some sort of "safety" mechanism. So, I wanted to accomplish two things: 1) Not beep when closing the door remotely, and 2) Close and open the door using Home Assistant. So that is where this project comes in to play. The idea is this, I am going to use a remote that is connected to a relay and an ESP8266 to open and close the door.

I might make a video about it when it is finished and working.

Maybe I was a bit harsh in my previous post. I was frustrated. Still am. I am actually considering ditching digital all together, and just going back to analog. Before I do, though, I am going to use my last HDZero Race V3 VTx.

I'll add one more tidbit of information. It is possible that my choice of capacitor on that build wasn't sufficient for HDZero. I used the capacitor that came with the SpeedyBee ESC. After putting it on, I realized my mistake, but decided that it should still be ok. I think I may have been wrong. So, in this rebuild, I chose a much larger 1000uf 35v capacitor, instead of the 470uf 35v one I had previously used. I am hoping that helps with any spikes in crashes.

Still, it's this sort of thing that annoys me. I never had to have a capacitor in my analog days. Sure, I would use one someitmes but it was never because I had to, but rather, to help with cleaning up electrical noise, and usually I never needed it when I was using TBS stuff, which was my usualy choice for video. This HDZero stuff, however, seems to be much more delicate. And for that I am quickly losing favor with it.

And I have had thoughts of maybe switching to DJI or walksnail. That is a possibility too, but it makes it harder for me to keep my builds sub 250g. It is still possible, but I would have to change other things as well, like the frame, and I really don't wat to do that.

I just want to enjoy flying, and don't want to constantly change what I am using. Maybe it would be best to move to wings.

Flew. Crashed. VTx broke. I am done with this hobby. Good bye!

I didn't get out to fly this morning as I had planned. Woke up to my back hurting like crazy, and just about couldn't get out of bed. Feeling much better now, so I am going to fly a few packs at the local park at lunch. I have missed flying and making videos.

Another day that I had planned on flying, and another day where I fail to follow through. Hopefully, I can correct that tomorrow. Time will tell.

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful wife! We have been married for 25 years. They have flown by, and I don't know where they have went, but it has ben quite the journey. And there is no one I would rather be married to than her. Yes, we have had our share of fights, and arguments, and disagreements, but she sticks by me through it all. She is a wonderful wife, mother, and person.

We are heading to Sarasota to spend the day. I am looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away. Florida has been so good for us. There is just so much to see and do. You truly are on vacation every day. We love it!

I have not been keeping up with this blog like I had planned. I think I just need to post here when I am in the mood. Keeping up with daily posts just doesn't seem to be in my cards. I get busy with other things, and forget about it. The past couple of days, I have been helping my son a bit with a projec. He is adding LED lights to his desk, and is using an arduino to control it all. It's pretty slick. He even got it integrated with our home assistant, and can control it through that. I am quite proud of him. I love that he loves to tinker and build things. It will do him well in the future.

It has been 2 weeks since I posted anything to YouTube. I can remmber when I flew and posted every single day. I have got out of the habit of flying each day, though I do think about every day. I don't think I am bored of the hobby, though I have been frustrated a bit, but it's just that I have been in kind of a blasé mood. I don't have anything of interest to share, and that has made me not as interested in flying. I know I shouldn't be that way, but I really do enjoy the interaction from video posts, particularly those that are more than "Cool", or "awesome flying".

A couple of years back, my buddy Dave and I would fly every single Saturday. I really miss those days. He was out of work then, and was living at home, so he had time. He finally got work, and his own place, and we haven't ben able to hang out that much since then, though we still chat on the phone or text most days. My buddy Randal is pretty busy too, but we get together once or twice a month usually to fly, and I always enjoy that. Still, I haven't got that drive to fly every day.

I suppose it is normal to lose that passion over time. Afterall, I have been into this hobby for almost 10 years now. I still enjoy it, but I have found tha I don't have to do it every single day. It's a hobby, and not an addiction. I think that is a good balance.

I maidened the new sub 250g build this morning. It flew perfectly well, and had nice video. Channel raceband 8 worked well as well at 200mw. I didn't have the issues that I had with my other VTx. It is possible that the other VTx had been damaged. I'll never know for sure as it is actually broke now. It had been in some bad crashes with some issues in the past after those crashes, so it is entirely possible that it did have damage.

As for the mouting, I think mounting it in the center is a better location overall as it protects it more, but it does leave the FC in a more vulnerable location at the tail. Hopefully that does not become a problem. I am pretty sure it will be fine as I am going to be taming my flying a good bit going forward anyways. I am just tired of wasting money replacing broke parts. There is nothing for me to gain by trying difficult things and breaking stuff as a result. While pulling off tough tricks can be quite satisfying, and I fully understand those that enjoy doing that, I find that for myself I enjoy flying far more than building, and rebuilding and as such, I will be avoding such things.

I have just about finished my new sub 250g build. It feels like this has taken way too long. I ran into some issues with how I had to build it. It seems that the original Acrobrat frame is a bit different from the clone I had been using (in a less convenient way). It has less vertical room, and less horizontal room on the rear 20x20 mounting location. This forced me to move my flight controller to the rear, and my VTX to the center over top of the ESC. In the end that doesn't really matter, but was a bit of a trick to figure out how I was going to position everything. It's these sorts of things that really frustrate me with the hobby.

I have a way to stream my flying direct from he goggles now. There will be more information coming on my YouTube channel in the near future. I am so looking forward to being able to do this in a way that is not such a hassle to set up. It's still a little extra work, but not like it would be with the external screen, and that is going to make it so much better.

Well, made a little progress yesterday on the drone, and got a little motivation back. But honestly, still not rushing it. I might have it finished in a few days, or not. Still not sure. On a positive note, though, I have a HD capture card coming in. Going to try to figure out a better way to live stream flying sessions. I think if I can figure that out, it might spark my joy in the hobby again. I guess, I am just a bit bored as I don't really have a good consistent group of people to enjoy the hobby with. I enjoy the hobby, but it's not as much fun by yourself all the time.

I am finding it hard to find motivation in the drone world these days. I kinda want to fly, but also, not really. Kind of feeling a bit burned out, honestly. I think it shows in my lack of posting here, and having to catch up after a few days. The weather has been a bit blah too, so that lends to the lack of motivation.

I have started work on building my second sub 250g drone. I am going to take my time.

This blog is therapeutic for me. That is a good thing, because if I did this because others read it, I would have quit a long time ago. I really thought when I started this that others might find it enjoying to keep up with me day to day, but I must have thought a bit too highly of myself. Very few come here day to day. There are some, but I figured it would be more.

I think most of us need that kind of wake up call, though. We need to do things because we find enjoyment in them, or they have a benefit for ourselves outside of anyone else caring. Enjoy what you do regardless of the opinion of others.

My parts to fix my sub 250g drone, and to finish my second one are out for delivery today. The parts should have been here several days ago, and were at the post office, but for whatever reason, the package got routed back to the regional distribution center, and took a few days to get back. That has happened before, and is very frustrating. It is far more frutrating than the package just taking longer to get here.

So, the plan is to get these built this week so I can get back to flying. And the flying is going to be more tame than before. If people don't like it, and quit watching my stuff on YouTube, so be it. I am going to just enjoy the hobby. I'm not doing this for anyone else anyway.

We are going to EPCOT this evening, and hopefully the crowds aren't too bad, though I have a feeling it will be. At the minimum, we'll do our Guardians of the Galaxy ride, and get some walking in while we are there.

Well, posting in the morning hasn't worked yet, but at least I remembered to post. I think I am going to purge some of the subscriptions I have on YouTube. It has just come time to clea out some mediocre content I am not watching. I'll leave it at that. I was going to share the ones that I am purging and reasons for doing it, but I'll just leave it at that.

I was going to do my drone rebuild yesterday, but for whatever reason the post office didn't deliver my package that arrived on time. I am not sure what happened. Kind of bummed me out because we have a holiday on Monday, so I won't get my parts until Tuesday now (hopefully). I guess I will do some flying in the simulator this week. Look for at least one live stream this week.

I keep forgtting to post on my blog each day. It doesn't take long but I keep forgetting to do it. I need to pick a particular time to do my posts. I think I am going to try and do it first thing in the morning as I think it will be easiest for me to remember to do it. We'll see how well this goes.

I have officially decided that I am going to stick with the sub 250g drones. In addition, I have decided that I don't need to do crazy tricks with it. I flew a quick pack today the other day, crashed hard, and broke my VTx. I no longer want to deal with that. I have better things to do with my money than replacing stuff that I break while trying some stupid trick. So, I ordered what I need to have 2 fully built sub 250g drones. After I get those built, I am no longer going to do crazy stuff with them. If I want to try crazy tricks, I will do that in the simulator. My drone flying is for my relaxtion and fun, and repairs are not fun, particularly on the wallet.

I did a live stream playing in the sim. I did it kind of late, but enjoyed it. I think I might do this regularly.

Another dead VTx. I am honestly getting to the point of wanting to ditch this hobby again. I think I need to just get them flying, and then quit with the freestyle flying. It honestly just ends in broke stuff over and over, and takes away the fun. I think that is going to be the best thing for me. Simple tricks and stuff will be fine, but nothing beyond that. I am good with that. I would rather be able to enjoy myself flying and know that I can fly all time time over being able to say that I can do trick X, Y or Z. I'll leave that to the rest of you that have more money than sense.

I am thinking of building a PC. I have been using the same Mac laptop as my primary computer for about 10 years now. It still gets the job done, but it is quite limiting in it's capabiliies. Editing video becomes a bit of work when using it, and I think it might be time to bite the bullet and build something that will be much better. I don't need top end, but would be nice to be able to livestream a bit, and have less work when editing. I will miss using FinalCut Pro X, though.

I have been tinkering with OBS on my son's PC, and he has been helping me to get it figured out. I think I am going to start streaming regularly. My thought right now is to stream while I am playing with ORQA's FPV SkyDive Drone Simulator. Hopefully, people enjoy it, and if they do, I'll likely do it wekly or a couple times a month at the very least.

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